152 



NATURE 



[Dec. 20, 1877 



seas, and will carry a line of dredgings and trawlings from Key 

 West to Yucatan. Bearing in mind the very great success that 

 has been experienced by the use of steel wire in taking soundings, 

 he proposes to try the experiment of a steel rope i jV inches in 

 diameter in the work of dredging and trawling. This, he thinks, 

 will reduce the friction to such an extent as to greatly diminish 

 the time and power necessary in making a cast of the dredge. 



The Emperor of Russia has conferred the order of St. Anne 

 on Mr. Carl Bock, F.G.S. 



The Monthly Microscopical Journal expires with the number 

 just issued far the last two months. It was edited from the com- 

 mencement by Dr. Henry Lawson — who, after a long period of 

 failing health, died on October 4 last — and has been in existence 

 for nine years. Many valuable papers are contained in it, by 

 distinguished authors, including the 'Proceedings of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, which will in future be published inde- 

 pendently. 



With reference to' the brilliant meteor of December 6, we 

 learn from Capt. Tupman that it will take him some time to 

 determine the most probable path from the immense number of 

 observations, good, bad, and indifferent, sent to him. Mean- 

 time he thinks that Prof. Herschel's preliminary calculation, not 

 yet published, that it began fifty-three miles over Wigan, and 

 burst thirty-three miles over a point half way between Great 

 Orme's Head and Douglas in Man, with radiant 78° -»■ 6° 

 (7 Orionis), agrees better with the observations than any other 

 path. We hope to publish Capt, Tupman's conclusions when 

 bis calculations are completed. 



The subject of Prof. Tyndall's six Christmas lectures to 

 juveniles is to be Heat, Visible and Invisible. They commence 

 on Thursday week. 



MM. Feil and Fremy, at last week's meeting of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, read a paper describing a new process for 

 the manufacture of rubies and other precious stones. The sen- 

 sation created by these wonderful experiments has been so 

 general that the Association of Jewellers have written to some of 

 the papers stating that it was impossible for human art to com- 

 pete against nature, that mysterious maker having at her disposal 

 an indefinite number of centuries, which is not the case with any 

 human worker, M. Daubree, the Director of the School of 

 Mines, has expressed the wish to open, in the public museum of 

 that magnificent establishment, a gallery for the [exhibition of 

 minerals produced artificially. M. Feil has already produced 

 in his glass foundry, and by the same process as rubies, an im- 

 mense number of stones which can be compared with the most 

 admirable crystalline productions of nature. Some of them are 

 so inexpensive that they may be used for ordinary decorative 

 purposes. 



An extraordinary but happily unsuccessful attempt was recently 

 made upon the life of Mr. Russell, the Government Astronomer 

 at Sydney, New South Wales. On September 8 a lad of about 

 nineteen years of age left a box at the observatory for Mr. Russell, 

 who, under the impression that it contained instruments of some 

 kind, proceeded to open it. He found the lid a sliding one, 

 similar to those adapted to ordinary instrument cases, and he 

 had not drawn it far when he discovered that the affair partook 

 more of the character of an infernal machine than anything else. 

 The movement of the lid became rather stiff, and upon inspecting 

 it and the box a little more closely he discovered at one end of 

 the latter several grains of powder. The box was then taken 

 into the open air, where it was investigated with special care. 

 The lid was released, and there were found in the box at least 

 i,\ lbs. of blasting-powder. In it were no less than sixteen 

 matches, stuck with their sulphurous points in dangerous proxi- 

 mity to a sheet of sand.paper fastened to the under-side of the 



lid, the design being evidently to cause an explosion by the 

 friction of the sand-paper against the matches ; and there can be 

 little doubt that this would have been effected had not great care 

 been exercised in handling the affair. Besides the matches and 

 powder, dangerous enough in themselves, a ginger-beer bottle, 

 filled with gunpowder, and evidently intended to act as a shell, 

 was found in the box ; Mr. Russell has expressed his belief that 

 altogether there was a sufficient quantity of explosive material 

 present in the bcx not only to destroy life, but to blow the 

 building down. One of the workmen at the observatory was 

 arrested on suspicion. 



The first number is announced to appear on January 3 of a 

 new weekly Revue Internationale des Sciences, under the editor- 

 ship of Dr. De Lanessan, Professor of Natural History in the 

 Medical Faculty of Paris. The publisher is Doin, of the Place 

 de I'Odeon, Paris. Among the collaboi-ateurs are several well- 

 known names in France and Germany, England being repre- 

 sented by Mr. Francis Darwin. 



The expected change has taken place in the French Ministry, 

 M. Faye has resumed his place as one of the Inspectors of 

 Public Instruction, and Member of the Bureau des Longitudes. 

 M. Bardoux, one of the most able members of the republican 

 party, has been appointed Minister of Public Instruction. M. 

 Bardoux is the President of the General Council of Puy de 

 Dome, who constructed, at the expense of the department, the 

 observatory built on the top of the mountain of the same name. 



M. Bardoux is preparing a bill granting to the rectors of the 

 several French academies (there is one in each of the eighty- 

 two departments) the right to appoint the teachers in the public 

 schools. Up to the present time these nominations were made 

 by the prefects and too often the choice was influenced by political 

 considerations. 



The enlarged council of the Paris Observatory held last Satur- 

 day a very interesting meeting. M. Faye has not resumed his 

 seat as councillor. Several reclamations were read against the 

 resolutions which had been adopted in the previous sitting. One 

 of them was on behalf of the Bureau des Longitudes, asking to be 

 allowed to have a voice in the presentation of the Director of the 

 Observatory, as well as the Council and the Academy of Sciences. 

 From the foundation of the Bureau des Longitudes up to 1854, 

 when M. Leverrier was appointed director for life by Napoleon 

 HI., the Bureau des Longitudes had the control of the observa- 

 tory. Each year the Bureau appointed one of its members to 

 superintend the observations, and the custom was to reappoint 

 the same member up to his death. Arago thus held his office by 

 yearly tenure for more than a quarter of a century. The discus- 

 sion of meteorological matters was begun, and the meeting 

 adjourned till to-day. No formal proposition will be made to 

 sever the International Bureau from the Observatory, the aim of 

 certain members being confined to the establishment of a Central 

 Board for Meteorology, which will give its advice on the 

 organisation of the .International Bureau, the Montsouris 

 Central Observatory, the Puy de Dome, the Pic du Midi, and 

 any other establishment which may be founded for meteorological 

 purposes. 



We are happy to state that the rumour widely spread in Paiis 

 of the death of Drouyn de Lhuys is unfounded, the learned 

 gentleman having recovered, against almost all hopes. He will 

 very likely resume his place in the several scientific societies 

 which he had resigned. 



M. Milne Edwards has been appointed president of the 

 French Scientific Association, which was founded by M. 

 Leverrier thirteen years ago. Under the direction of M. 

 Leverrier the association spent not less than 250,000 francs for 

 scientific purposes, and has accumulated a sum of about 400,000 



